Anna Michel Asimakopoulou: The background and timing of developments – The withdrawal from European elections and resignations

The mystery of how foreign voters’ addresses reached its hands was solved and led to the withdrawal of its nomination from the New Democracy Eurobond, as well as both resignations of officials of the interior ministry. According to the information so far, the list of emails was reportedly acquired by an associate of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Michalis Stavrianoudakis, who promoted it to the Secretary of State for Democracy of the South West. Nikos Theodoropoulos and then was given to Anna Michel Asimakopoulou and specifically in May 2023 in service government. “We didn’t want any shadow” Government spokesman Paul Marinakis confirmed the information, speaking to Real fm. “There is an ongoing investigation by the Privacy Authority but because we did not want there to be any shadow and because we saw the main opposition’s attempt to implement the epistolic vote, this investigation came to some conclusions. One conclusion is that some emails seem to have left – while they should not have left – after the election process of May 2023, from an associate of the then Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Stavrianoudakis – so he took political responsibility and resigned, although he did not have these duties from June onwards (he had other duties unrelated to the electors). And through the Secretary of the Alumni of the ND Mr.Theodoropoulos it seems that the (e.g. emails) went, according to the results of the research, to the MEP Anna Michel Asimakopoulou,” said Mr. Marinakis. The Asimakopoulou announcement after the leak had preceded early Friday morning (15.03. 24) Anna Michel Asimakopoulou’s announcement to withdraw her nomination from the SW Eurolist, a few hours after the leak that Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided that the party’s MEP to date would not claim the vote again. It is recalled that two further investigations are being carried out: the prosecutorial investigation and the investigation of the Privacy Authority. In a statement Mrs. Asimakopoulou said: “I am testifying today to the AUTOMA, as I have been asked, on the well-known issue of sending a newsletter from my office. In my political course I have always been a “soldier” of the great ND party and served her from whatever position I was asked for. As a MEP, for 5 years I fought many battles for Greece and Greeks. For this whole course I’m obviously evaluated and judged. Belief in the principles, values and my love for Greece, I informed the Prime Minister of my decision not to participate as a candidate in the forthcoming European elections in June if this matter has not been fully cleared up. This, because my conscience does not allow me to participate unwittingly in the efforts of some to harm the institution of the epistolic vote, the Mitsotakis Government or the prestige of Greece. The reason now is exclusively for the competent authorities investigating the case and I am sure that they will soon come to the truth and the real dimensions of this matter. I repeat once again that I will cooperate with them in what is asked.” “Weigh” the climate in Maximus The climate at Maximos Palace and Piraeus, after the massive email sent from her office to Greek voters abroad and the noise of how their e-mail addresses reached her hands, was heavy. It is recalled that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his recent interview with SKAI, had stated that the government was conducting its own investigation on the issue, while also running an investigation from the Ministry of Interior. The government was also “discussed” by the opposition’s statements linking the issue to the epistolic vote, appreciating that all this noise undermines the government’s initiative to facilitate outcasts to participate in the 9 June election process.